Mission to Mars is a soap opera rather than a space opera

There's something about Mars that holds our attention and draws us to wonder, despite all the evidence that tells us it is a great red desert unable to support human life. Perhaps it is that we continue to think of Giovanni Schiaparelli's canali as canals even though we know better. Perhaps it is the lingering terror of H.G.Wells's invasion as told by Orson Wells.

Given that lingering fascination, it was probably inevitable that the launching of the Mars lander would engender movies about going there. What is sad is that the first one fails so badly when it might have done so well.

In 2020, the first Mission to Mars is launched, and there the multinational astronauts discover a fantastic artifact. Unfortunately, three of them die in the process, prompting the launch of a rescue mission--and try to discover what caused the catastrophic end of the first.

The flight of the rescue ship is probably the best part of this film, plotwise. For one thing, it adheres very closely to what a Mars mission vessel might really be like, although one suspects that certain scenes are intentional bows in the direction of the late Stanley Kubrick. Once the rescue team actually reaches the red planet, however, any sense of reality goes straight out the exhaust tubes.

That is what makes Mission to Mars such a huge disappointment. Given the caliber of the cast and the director, this could have been a first-class SF thriller. Instead, it is nothing more than an interplanetary soap opera in which Gary Sinise's vacant expression suggests he's really wondering why he ever let himself get talked into it. Apparently, the screenwriters (Jim and John Thomas and Graham Yost, using a concept by Lowell Cannon) couldn't grasp the possibility that a grown man might not need to be suffering in order to want to explore the unknown all by himself.

Tim Robbins, who also should know better when it comes to picking parts, ends up coming off like a uxorious frat brother instead of a seasoned spaceship commander. As for poor Connie Nielson, who portrays Burton's wife, she is forced to switch from hysterical to competent so fast it's a wonder she isn't dizzy, and the few lines she has that actually make her sound like a trained professional seem to have been thrown in just for that purpose.

The utterly predictable ending of this unabashed piece of schmaltz might actually have been forgivable if the rest of the film weren't such an over-emotional mess. Unfortunately, by the time the big "surprise" arrives, most viewers are probably already asleep. One definitely expects much better work from people like director Brian de Palma and co-scripter Graham Yost (Predator, Speed).

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